“Samsung’s performance in the smartphone market deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 2014, when it lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share,” Anshul Gupta, Gartner principal research analyst, commented of Samsung’s decline.

“Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung’s share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure.”

Meanwhile, at the budget end of the smartphone market, consumers are being inundated with a range of Android alternatives, with manufacturers such as Xiaomi posting rapid growth in recent times.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that, according to analysts, the new S6 and S6 edge could account for as much as a quarter of total smartphone sales in the second quarter, which would likely help lift margins, with the S6 edge in particular priced at a premium to Samsung’s lower-end smartphones.